Pangasius and potatoes roasted in beer

We have this old recipe for pangasius fish cooked in beer with bacon, so now I upgraded it a little into a one course dish. In this new version the fish fillet is cut into little pieces and the bacon is also minced. I have to admit the result was quite delicious :)

Ingredients for 4

• 1 kg of potatoes
• 2 big pieces of pangasius fillet
• 10 leaves of rosemary
• 2 onions 
• 10 dkgs of sliced bacon
• 2,5 dl of lager
• salt and pepper

Cut the potatoes in quarters and put them into a pan. Add some salt and pepper. Get the onions and the bacon into a frood processor and grind them. Stir the mixture in the pan with the potatoes. Chop the rosemary fine and sprinkle it onto the potatoes. Cover the pan with tin foil and cook it in the oven at 200 deg Celsius until the potato is done. Then put the cut up fish fillet on top and pour the beer too. Cover it again and put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes. After that remove the cover and let the fluids disappear and the top of the potatoes become golden. 

Beetroot with balsamic vinegar and walnuts

Ingredients

• beetroot
• a bit of oil
• walnuts, roughly chopped
• dark balsamic vinegar
• salt and pepper

Cook the beetroot in water and peel them wearing plastic gloves. Cut them in equally sized circles with a plane and put the circles in a pan, formerly oiled. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on it, and cook them in the oven at 200 deg Celsius. At half time give them a good stir and sprinkle the walnut. Cook it until the vingear becomes gluey.

Ice cold cucumber soup

The moment when you realize that you still have some of yesterday's cucumber soup left in the fridge is priceless in 36 degrees. This soup is something woth eating even in the biggest heat, because it's light and cool and you can eat as much as you want. Usually it doesn't take a long time to eat all of it in our family....:)

Ingredients, serves 4

• 3-4 cucumbers
• 3-4 dls of plain youghurt
• 2 ls of cold water
• 2 cloves of garlic
• salt and freshly ground pepper

Peel the cucumbers and rasp them. Pour the water, and add the smashed garlic. Use a blender or a mixer to blend it. Stir the yoghurt in and add some salt and pepper. Taste it and if it needs anything else, add some more. Let it cool in the fridge for a couple of hours and then you can eat all you want. 

Summer style potato with basil and tomato

Basically this is a copy of  the basil potatoes that my mum used to make when we were little. I asked her for the recipe many times but I always forget it, so now I came up with my own. My brain seriously stopped today while writing my essay so I needed something to get it to function again. However, it's a fact that with new potatoes, fresh basil and ripe tomatoes, you cannot really fail... :)

Ingredients:

• 6 new potatoes
• 2 ripe tomatoes
• half a red onion
• 10-12 leaves of fresh basil
• a hanful of fresh thyme
• 3 tablespoons of sour cream
• salt, fresh ground pepper
• a tiny bit of oil

Wash the potatoes but you can leave the skin on, if it's nice. Wash the tomatoes as well, and peel the onion.  What we need is to have equal sied potato slices, which is also true for the onin and the tomaotes. So slice everything up and then you can start puting together the dish. Pour a bit of olive oil into a heatproof dish and lay the firs layer of potatoes. Sprinkle salt and pepper on them. Lay a couple of slices of tomatoes on the top of the potatoes and some onion as well. Season it with the basil and the thyme. Continue with the layers until you run out of potatoes. The top layer has to be potatoes because the final step is spreading some sour cream on top. Put the whole thing in the oven for about an hour at 180 degrees, preferably covered with aluminium foil, which you can remove in the last 10 minutes so that the top can roast a bit. 

Cinnamon - banana rolls with whole wheat flour

Unfortunately not all of it is made of whole wheat flour, because I'm always afraid that the dough is gonna be too thick if I only use whole wheat (although the yeast made it quite airy). At the beginning I wanted to put the banana in the dough but it would have been too soft, so the banana became the stuffing. Maybe it's better like this, the taste is stronger. 

Ingredients

• 20 dkg of whole wheat flour
• 25 dkg of Graham flour
• 20 dkg of plain flour
• 10 dkg of sugar
• 4 dl of milk
• 10 dkg of butter
• 1 egg
• 1 packet of instant yeast
• a pinch of salt 
• 3 bananas 
• 2 tbl spoons of ground cinnamon 
• 1 egg for the wash

Put the milk, the butter and the sugar in a pan and start cooking it on a very low fire. You don't need to boil it, just make the sugar and the butter melt in the milk. Meanwhile measure the flour and mix it with the salt and the yeast. I usually make the dough in a bread baking machine. When the milk is ready stir a beaten egg into it. Pour the mixture into the machine with the flour and start making the dough. 

While the machine is doing its job, smash the bananas with a fork and mix it with the cinnamon. Strech the dough quite big and slush the stuffing on it. Start rolling it up starting from the longer side. When it's done, start cutting it in 2 cm wide slices. Put the pieces on an oven pan and give them an egg wash. Cook them in the oven at 200 deg Celsius for 15 minutes. Let it cool and then you can eat it.

Tuna casserole with peas

I'm having minor kitchen accidents these days so I got a two piece casserole dish set as a consolation gift. In the bigger one you can cook for two people and the smaller one is enough for one. I tried the bigger dish out the next day with this tuna casserole :) 

Ingredients

• half a packet of penne 
• 1 can of peeled tomatoes
• 3 drops of liquid sweetener
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 can of tuna (in brine)
• peas according to taste
• grated cheese
• salt, pepper

First you have to cook the penne in boiling salted water. Then chop the onion and the garlic fine and start cooking it in a saucer pan. Chop the canned tomatos up and pour it into the pan. Add some salt, pepper, a bit of water and the 2 drops of sweetener. Pour in the peas and cover it with a lid. Cook it until the peas are fine, then remove the lid and let it boil for a while so that it gets thicker. Then lay one third of the penne on the bottom of the casserole dish, then one third of the tuna and one third of the tomato sauce. Repeat this twice and sprinkle the cheese on top of it in the end. You need to cook it in the oven at 200 deg Celsius until the cheese becomes golden. 

Red currant and raspberry sponge cake

The garden is full of red currant and raspberries and luckily the family loves sour fruits so this is why this very easy sponge cake was born last week. I found a perfect sponge cake recipe on the internet once and it is practically impossible to mess it up. Before that my sponge cakes were never really good but with this recipe you can always make a perfect one without baking soda. The only flaw of it could be that it's a little bit dry because the recipe doesn't include any butter but you can always add some, according to your taste.

Ingredients 

• 6 eggs
• 25 dkg of plain flour
• 12 dkg of sugar
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract or flavour
• red currrant and raspberries

When you make a sponge cake, always use cold eggs! Separate the eggs. Beat the whites up with the sugar until it's firm enough. This is the most important movement in making a sponge cake, because if you beat the whites up with the sugar in it, it's gonna be much firmer. This way the sponge cake won't collapse in the oven and it will rise nicely. Stir the yolks with the vanilla extract and if you want to, this is the time to add the lukewarm butter too. Pour this mixture onto the beat up egg whites and give it a careful stir. Then you will have to sift the flour into the whites and stir it very carefully, just until it's homogenous. Line some baking paper into an oven pan (that has at least 6 cm high sides) and pour the mixture into the pan. Put the fruits on top and put it in the oven at 160 deg Celsius for about 35-40 minutes. When it's done, let it cool down in the oven so that it doesnt't collapse.